


Fair Warning

by bioticbootyshaker



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-07 13:27:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4264893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bioticbootyshaker/pseuds/bioticbootyshaker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's dangerous, to get so close in a place of rules and watchful eyes. Dangerous to find a dusty spot in the library to bury their shame together.</p>
<p>Dangerous for templars to fall in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fair Warning

Cullen watched him, flushed and beautiful and soaked with sweat, his muscles shifting and bunching under his skin as he armed the sweat from his forehead and bent over the basin of water to wash himself. The drops of water trickled down his body, glistening in the soft blonde hair on his chest and stomach. 

A warm shiver moved up Cullen's spine. He was hot under his armor, and his lip was sore from where his teeth bit down against it. A dozen different canticles and verses rushed through his mind, that made him immediately ashamed of his lustful stare. Still shivering hotly, Cullen turned his eyes to his boots, the shine of the sun blinding off of the polished steel.

They trained every day on the shore of Lake Calenhad, though none of them quite knew what they trained _for_. Kinloch Hold was a quiet place. Still, it was better to keep their bodies and their minds sharp in case anything ever happened.

The man he watched was Alistair, the newest brother to join the Order. He'd trained as Cullen had trained, since childhood, devoting himself to Andraste and the Maker and service to the faithful. Though Alistair was a bit more... animated than anyone Cullen knew.

"You've been staring at your boots for three minutes," Alistair said, suddenly standing close. Cullen stiffened, his face burning and his belly tightening. Maker, he was a mess. Why should he get so worked up over a pretty man with pretty blue eyes?

"Ah, have I?" Cullen asked. "I, um... it wasn't on purpose, really."

Even without looking up, he knew that Alistair was smiling when he said, "You accidently stare at your boots?"

Cullen looked up, straightening himself so he stood a few inches over Alistair. "I was daydreaming, I suppose," he admitted, with more steadiness than he felt. He caught a flicker of something in Alistair's eyes -- desire, want, need -- before a wide smile cleared it away. 

"Can't imagine what you were thinking about," Alistair said. "But I've always had the imagination of wet tissue paper. Ah... according to the Grand Cleric. Though she didn't have much of an imagination herself when I put itching powder in her knickers."

Cullen laughed, despite himself, and immediately covered his mouth when a stern pair of eyes flicked his way. "You do not hold anything sacred."

"Aww, well that's not true," Alistair said. "I hold plenty of things sacred. But I can't say stuffy old Chantry ladies are one of them."

Cullen couldn't help his smile. "I fear I may have been warned about you," he said. There was a weight and gravity to the words that he hadn't expected. 

"I'm sure you were," Alistair said. There was a weight to his words, as well, but also a warmth that Cullen could almost feel on his skin. "I've never been a very good boy, all things considered. But who has, really? No one can be good all the time."

"No," Cullen agreed. He held Alistair's stare, letting the heat move over his skin and center in his chest and stomach. "No one can."

****

His kiss was like fire. Like someone had set his tongue aflame and he was breathing smoke into Cullen's lungs. 

But Maker, it was so _good_. Cullen gripped Alistair by his collar and pulled him flush against his body. He kissed him like he might never be given the chance to kiss him again; like he might disappear through his fingers like mist. When Alistair broke the kiss, Cullen whined and pulled him back, sucking and biting his lips, feeling a great hunger in the pit of his stomach.

No one could be good all the time. 

"It's dangerous," Alistair whispered. His voice shivered, his lips following when Cullen moved his hips to increase friction. No doubt he intended the words to restore reason, but all they did was send excitement through Cullen. Yes, it was dangerous tucked away in the library, behind a shelf of dusty tomes, with Alistair hard and hot against him and his breath damp on his mouth. They could be caught, dragged to the Knight Commander and punished severely. And even if they weren't, the Maker could see them, could see how their passion and earthly, base desires distracted them from their duties.

Yet...

"I want you," Cullen whispered, burying his face at Alistair's throat and kissing at the scruff of stubble under his jaw. "Do you want me?"

He waited, his stomach in tangles, his heart fluttering wildly, his face still pressed against Alistair's throat.

When he felt his hands move down his back and cup his ass, Cullen melted against him, turning his face up and finding Alistair's mouth.

"I want you more than I've ever wanted anything," Alistair said, when he broke their kiss and moved his lips to Cullen's ear. "Anyone. And that's---"

Worrying. Exhilarating. Amazing. _Terrifying._

"--good," Alistair finished, fingers sliding through Cullen's curls and tightening at the nape of his neck. 

Good.

And dangerous.

****

Nothing ever happened at Kinloch Hold. 

Except when it did. 

The boy, Jowan, had slipped away. With his phylactery destroyed there was no way to track him, and Greagoir was yelling at the woman who had assisted him. A slight, small, elven woman with eyes that blazed as she stood defiant against her Knight Commander. She did not apologize for her actions, or make any attempts to defend herself or explain herself. She said only that she'd done it for a friend, that she hadn't known that he was a blood mage, and that she did not regret what she'd done.   
And to make matters even worse, the Grey Warden, Duncan, stepped forward and invoked the Rite of Conscription.

That he took the mage was bad enough, but when his dark eyes fell on Alistair, Cullen felt a chill run up his spine and spread through his chest. No, he wanted to say, to yell, to order. You can't take him from me. But all he could do was stand there, still and silent, as Duncan demanded Alistair join him in the march to Ostagar and their fight against the Blight.

He'd seen Duncan with him before, making what had seemed like casual conversation with Alistair as he trained. Now he knew that he had come seeking recruits, and he had chosen Alistair long before the events of that night had unfolded.

What choice did Alistair have? He looked helplessly as Greagoir, who turned from him in anger and frustration. And then he looked to Cullen, an apology he shouldn't have offered rising in his eyes. 

He bit his lips and looked down at his boots. And this time, when his eyes stung, it was not from the glint of the sun.

****

"Wait."

It was dangerous. Of course it was. Everything they did was dangerous. But watching Alistair as he walked with Surana and Duncan towards the heavy doors leading out of the Circle, Cullen didn't care. He reached out and caught Alistair's wrist and said his name when he refused to look at him.

When he looked up, tears were brimming in his eyes. 

Cullen paid no attention to the eyes that were on them. He didn't care as he cupped Alistair's face and pulled him close and kissed him. He didn't care as Alistair clung to him and carded his fingers through his hair and let not even an inch separate them.

He wanted the moment to last forever, and Cullen thought, as Alistair pulled away and left Kinloch Hold behind him, that it would. He touched his lips and felt his kiss, warm and tingling. 

They had warned him about the man.

They had been right to.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Cullen Positivity Week on tumblr! I love the idea of Alistair being a templar before he becomes a Warden, and having a relationship with Cullen that he thinks of while at Ostagar and out on the road.
> 
> Maybe I'll write a second chapter where Alistair returns during all the trouble with Uldred....


End file.
